Sea Hawk T7

[The Rat]

Looking better by the day! 

[chrisonord]

Marvelous Mr Jaybee, I am liking this
Chris

[JayBee]

Well Gentle People we are a little bit further down the route to completion.

The next progression shows just how slowly some of these stepp can be. This lot has taken me almost two weeks to achieve, so please be patient.

First, the pilots/drivers.




Then these guys are really dedicated to there roles, they are definitely glued to their seats.



Next, how you strap them in.
I use thin strips of masking tape which are later painted in the correct colours.






Then it is into the cockpit with them.





Then the clear bits go on.



Then the canopy masks (Eduard) go on and the masking fluid, where appropriate.
At this point it does look rather like a bug eyed monster.




Even more so now!



Then paint over the canopy with the colour for interior of the canopy framing.
..And here is Jaybee's favourite tip. If you have used masking fluid, make sure that you paint over the area of dried fluid.
This will make sure that it does not dry out totally.
Enamels are better for this rather than acrylics.
I say this because a good number of years ago I had a model that I had masked the canopy and painted the framing, but then left for about a year before I returned to it (it is still not finioshed). When I came to take the masking of where I had painted over, came away perfectly normally. Where the masking fluid had not been painted over it had dried on hard, and I had to end up sanding, and polishing, it off the canopy.
Not a fun operation.




Finally, a coat of Tamiya primer just to let you see the lines of this lovely aircraft.

[PR19_Kit]

That looks SO plausible I wonder why they didn't actually do it, bearing in mind that the FAA had no 2 seat jets at the time, apart from their Vampire T22s and they didn't have hooks!

[kitnut617]

You know Jim, sitting on steel beams can give you piles ----   

[NARSES2]

You know Jim, sitting on steel beams can give you piles ----   

I'm desperately biting my tongue to not mention the differences between beams and proper piling as defined under the Treaty of Paris 

That's really nice work Jim. I'm impressed that you can paint the straps in situ 

As a possible helpful aside, you know you can buy masking tape in various widths down to 0.5mm wide ?

[JayBee]

A little slow progress. Puting the RP-3s together. The kit parts are rather nice and scale looking but they are in two parts. The front part is moulded with the the rocket rails and the mounting stubs, and the rear part with the fins is separate.
Why did they do it this way? I truly believe that modern moulding technology could have done it in a much better way!
Anyway the process of joining the front and rear portions was a total PITA!

[Scotaidh]

A little slow progress. Puting the RP-3s together. The kit parts are rather nice and scale looking but they are in two parts. The front part is moulded with the the rocket rails and the mounting stubs, and the rear part with the fins is separate.
Why did they do it this way? I truly believe that modern moulding technology could have done it in a much better way!
Anyway the process of joining the front and rear portions was a total PITA!

I remember doing those, once.  You're very right about the PITA - I much preferred the Airfix Hurricane ones I built first - the rails in a block that mounted to the underside of the wing, with the one-piece rockets to be glued to them. 

[JayBee]

A little bit of progress. When checking the fit of the drop tanks I felt that they looked as if they had just a little bit too much downward slope towards the front. So a thin (0.1mm) plasticard has been added to the rear of the pylons. This will be trimmed before painting.

[Captain Canada]

Oh yeah. That's one of the neatest things I've seen all year !